Rada appoints energy minister

Ukraine’s parliament appointed Herman Haluschenko to the
position of energy minister on April 29. A supermajority of 305 MPs (out of 226
needed) voted in favor of this appointment, including the pro-president
faction, opposition factions and pro-oligarchic groups and factions. Over the
last year, Haluschenko served at the position of vice-president of state
nuclear generation company Energoatom. Before that, he occupied various
positions in the foreign ministry, justice ministry and presidential
administration.

Recall, the position of energy minister has remained
vacant all the time since the appointment of the Cabinet of PM Denys Shmyhal in
March 2020, so the ministry has had only acting heads. The latest attempt to
appoint an energy minister was in December, when the Rada failed to gather enough votes to appoint Yuriy Vitrenko.
Vitrenko, a former top manager of Naftogaz, served as acting energy minister since late December.
On April 28, Vitrenko was appointed CEO of Naftogaz.

Alexander Paraschiy: There is
little information about the experience of Haluschenko in the energy sector, so
he seems to be a compromise figure who satisfies politicians from different
camps, taking into account the results of the vote in Rada. This is a sharp
contrast with the clearly pro-Western Vitrenko, whose candidacy had no chance
in the Rada. We do not expect any significant changes in Ukraine’s energy
policy with this appointment, nor do we see the new minister as being able to
address the challenges of the sector.